Posted By:
Al C.risafulli"Fudgy the Whale, Moby Dick and my mother-in-law."
That might be the funniest thing I'll read all weekend.
To Leon's point I agree, and I don't think it's only the lower-grade stuff that's flat. I took a bath on eBay last night with some low-grade material, but also on some higher-grade, oddball stuff.
I think like any other issue, whether it's Plow Boy cards or 1980 Topps, realized prices are going to be directly attributed to who is building the set at any given time.
The first time I noticed this was with 1938 Goudey. I had a few cards where I upgraded 7s to 8s, and I put the 7s out there on eBay and took a loss on them. At first I couldn't figure out why the bidding wasn't as spirited as it was when I bought the cards, and then I realized - duh - that since I wasn't driving up the prices with my own bids, the market was thinner and thus the pricing was lower. At the same time, a few weeks ago I sold some 8s for very high prices because some new players had begun working on the set - whether they're "whales" or not, I don't know - I'm an ad guy, not a marine biologist.
-Al